V'con for me this week. I made Cheater Baked Beans and the Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta Sandwich to take to a family dinner. Cheater Baked beans are very easy and came out quite nicely. I would recommend this recipe for anyone who is intimidated by V'con. Everyone enjoyed them. But the Muffuletta Sandwitch stole the show. Everyone loved it, and my dad asked for the recipe!

_________________"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque

Last night I did the Chili-Lime Rubbed Tofu, and the Orange-Scented Broccoli. They were both ok, but neither impressed me as much as I was expecting.

That may come down to some ingredient fails on my part, though; I discovered right before starting the broccoli, for example, that the ginger in my fridge had gone bad and I ended up using ginger powder; the orange I had bought, thinking it was a juice orange, turned out to be a navel orange. Also, I thought I had chili powder, but it was actually Spanish pepper powder, so I mixed that with some Adobo spice mix. Plus, my oven was kicking my asparagus last night, so my cooking mojo was on the fritz. I'll definitely try both recipes again with all the right ingredients and hopefully better cooking mojo.

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

Just had the leftover Chili-Lime Rubbed Tofu on a sandwich for lunch and it was really good! It was an open-faced sandwich with vegan mayo, escarole, the tofu, and a drizzle of sriracha. Definitely going to do that again!

ETA: Picture.

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

I had the bbq seitan and colseslaw sandwiches for dinner. They were so good!

For me this was five new recipes in one: Seitan cutlets, silken mayo dressing, home-style potato rolls, backyard bbq sauce and of course the recipe for the sandwiches.

I've read that some people have had problem with the seitan cutlets being rubbery, but mine was good. A little rubbery perhaps, but I've had much worse when it comes to that. The cutlets worked well in this recipe since they have a pretty plain taste. I forgot to add the oil, but that doesn't seem to have messed it up too much. And since I don't have a grill pan, I just fried the seitan in a non-stick pan.

I cooked the Nicois Salad with Green Goddess Dressing from Appetite for Reduction. The salad is good. I like the chickpea mixture. I don't like the dressing that much. I think my garlic was too strong because the dressing is a bit "spicy". I'll eat the rest with a balsamic as suggested.

I also made the Coconut Corn Pudding from Viva Vegan. Delicious. My only mistake was eating too much of it while I was cooking. By the time I was done cooking, I couldn't eat anymore. But, tonight...

I plan on make the Sweet Potato Black Bean Tamales also from Viva Vegan. I've made tamales a few times before but each time I reach for the dry husks, I get overwhelmed. Maybe I'll try making them into empanadas instead.

The Forty Clove Chickpea and Broccoli was AMAZEBALLS! That is definitely going into my standard rotation. I threw it over some pasta and sprinkled with nooch but I could have eating it straight out of the pan. I'm curious how the leftovers will be.

Glad I'm not kissing anyone tonight!

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

Basic Baked Tofu is in the oven...it smells really good. This is my first time baking tofu, ever. I've sauteed it and grilled it, but never baked it. Side dish is "Southern Style Green Beans" from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester.

The AFR Basic Baked Tofu was a hit...I made it with some previously frozen tofu, which I think gives it a nice texture when it's going to be enjoyed in cubes or cutlets. Hubby had seconds. I thought it was quite tasty. It kind of made a mess out of my baking sheet though, so use some of the nonstick foil if you decide to make it.

The green beans were also tasty...seasoned with liquid smoke and cajun seasoning. Though I don't think I quite cooked them enough. Oh well.

Tonight was Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu from VV, Orange-scented broccoli from AFR, and a orzo medley blend from Trader Joes as a side. Was a great meal. No pics as husband just could not wait to eat. The tofu has a great flavor and it went really well with the broccoli. Though there was a lot of juice in the broccoli that I think would be great over fried tofu and other sauteed veggies. Will make all of these again.

Love Child, I've been eyeing the bbq seitan and coleslaw sandwich recipe for a while now. I don't think I'lll have time to make them this week, but maybe I'll plan ahead and do them for the next Isa/Terry week. Yours look so good.

_________________"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque

Tonight I made a version of the Pasta e Fagioli recipe from AFR. I cheated and used canned fire-roasted tomatoes and also used about half the spinach the recipe called for, because it seemed like "enough" after adding that much. I also added a bit of red pepper flakes to the sauce, yum yum yum! Oh yeah, and I used rotini, because that's the type of pasta I had. It's not pretty, but it was very tasty and filling! The ingredients required to make this are cheap too, which is always a plus in my book.

Love Child, I've been eyeing the bbq seitan and coleslaw sandwich recipe for a while now. I don't think I'lll have time to make them this week, but maybe I'll plan ahead and do them for the next Isa/Terry week. Yours look so good.

I picked VWAV for the week since I've not used it much of late. My goal was to make mostly things I've failed to make in the past, so I started with Stewed tofu and mushrooms in miso gravy. Sadly, I just didn't love it, but it may have been because my wine wasn't the greatest. I think if I cut back the wine and made the potatoes smaller I would like it much more.

I went with a Peruvian theme from Viva Vegan tonight! We had the yellow chile grilled tempeh, potatoes with spicy cheesy sauce, and the red chile-corn salad with cherry tomatoes and lima beans. I was really excited to make these because each recipe used one of the chile pastes (aji amarillo and aji panca) that I bought in Spain back in January and hadn't used yet.

The tempeh was really tasty even though I cooked it a little bit too long so it was bordering on a bit dry. But that's not the recipe's fault! I was skeptical that it would be flavourful enough with the really short marinating time, but it was great.

I've been wanting to make the potatoes for ages and they didn't disappoint! I might try roasting them next time though. But the sauce is delicious and I can see myself making it again for nachos or something. Or just to eat with corn chips.

The salad was a real surprise, I'm not a huge fan of salads but I really enjoyed this one. Super flavourful and filling with a good kick from the aji panca. I'm glad this made enough for leftovers!

Change of plans since the eggplant we got in our CSA box this week is like an 8 oz eggplant. So it and the 1 1/2 lb eggplant from last week with some bug spots that need cutting out, will both go into the Lentil Eggplant Chili Mole on Friday.

So instead, I made Mom's Marinara tonight, just the basic version, and we had it over Rising Moon Organics vegan roasted vegetable ravioli, with some seeded baguette. (Also a CSA thing...ours offers a lot of other local stuff as add-ons and you can basically do your grocery shopping through them, mostly.) I am so glad someone makes vegan frozen ravioli. I was really starting to miss ravioli when I discovered these.

The marinara was very good and SUPER easy to make. And cheap, since a can of crushed tomatoes is 89 cents at Aldi. Looking forward to trying it with the eggplant soon, or maybe the lentil bolognese version.

I forgot to take a picture of the ravioli topped with the sauce before we ate it, but here is the rest of the sauce in the pot...hopefully I am having cache issues and the pic isn't huge because I've resized it twice in Photobucket.

I made Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes and Shaved Brussels Sprouts from AFR. Besides being awesome, they were excellent comfort food during this stressful week of starting a new job and caring for a very sick kitty. I was able to sit on the bed and prep the veggies while the tempeh marinated, which was nice. I wanted to do the suggested polenta stuffing, but got lazy.

I also took Isa's bowl suggestion with black beans, rice, sweet potato and kale, but I used Green Tomatillo Sauce from Viva Vegan instead of Red Velvet Mole because I had some tomatillos from the farmer's market to use up. I'm eating it now and it's pretty amazing.

AFR is great and I really should use it more. My partner wants to lose weight, but I always feel full and happy. Plus I never have room for dessert, which is probably a good thing.

We had pot pie stew with sweet potato dumplings from AFR last night and portabella pepper steak stew with caulipots tonight. I loved both of them! The seitan from AFR is the only seitan I've ever liked to eat by itself. My partner was iffy about the pot pie stew but that's only because he loves pot pie (esp the crust).

This week we've had the pumpkin muffins from VWAV for breakfast. I sub in white whole wheat flour and use half oil/half applesauce and they're so flippin good. My partner has taken to grilling them on our George Forman grill to get the surfaces nice and crispy. Yum.

Love Child, I've been eyeing the bbq seitan and coleslaw sandwich recipe for a while now. I don't think I'lll have time to make them this week, but maybe I'll plan ahead and do them for the next Isa/Terry week. Yours look so good.

Agreed, they look and sound great!

Thank you! These sandwiches were so addicting, I think I'll have to make them again real soon.

This week we've had the pumpkin muffins from VWAV for breakfast. I sub in white whole wheat flour and use half oil/half applesauce and they're so flippin good. My partner has taken to grilling them on our George Forman grill to get the surfaces nice and crispy. Yum.

Thanks for the info that subbing half applesauce works well in this recipe -- it did not in the berry muffins from VB. Will have to give it a try!

So I plunged into making the Black Bean Sweet Potato Tamales from Viva Vegan. Luckily steamed masa is very forgiving because my wrapping technique needs work. I did run into a problem with the sweet potatoes. Yams/sweet potato? I've heard so many ways to distinguish the two. The confusing part is that my family uses the soft orange potatoes and calls them by both names-"sweet potato pie" and "candied yams". I went with the denser golden sweet potatoes because I like to eat them. But, they were too dry and not sweet enough for the tamales. Nonetheless, I still like them.

I know it is only Thursday, but I finished up my 3 never-before-tried recipes from AFR last night. I really love the challenges.

Eggplant Lentil Chilli Mole

(details on that in a post above) Didn't take a picture, it was good, but not that pretty.

Tortilla Soup

Holy shiitake! Why have I not make this before! We loved it. It tasted EXACTLY like how I remember non-veg tortilla soup was. The broth was excellent. I made it pretty much just as the recipe stated, except I threw in a handful or so of soy curls to make it like chicken tortilla soup. I highly reccomend this, if you have soy curls. I used the ones at the bottom of a couple of bags, so they were not long strips. I also put some daiya pepperjack shreds over it.

Oh, this is omni-approved by the way, although he wanted me to toast some pine nuts to put in there (don't ask)

Here is a blurry picture. Yum. Leftovers for lunch today, I can't wait.

Linguine with Edamame Pesto

Wow, this was excellent as well! I did make a few changes...I though that it needed a little extra something, so I added more lemon, more salt, more broth (it was very stiff) and a couple of tablespoons of sun dried tomatoes. It was really really really good. Very generous with the portions! I put some fresh chopped tomatoes from the garden in there to balance out the pesto. so good.

What I like best is that I want to use this 'pesto' (more of a spread IMO) for other things. I put it in a pita for a snack, having it over a baked potato tonight. Both my partner and I agreed that we are going to put it on PIZZA soon! (definitly omni approved. He loved it.)

For my 3rd new v'con recipe I tried making Seitan Cutlets. Sadly, they didn't turn out so great. They are brainy on the outside and very densely chewy and rubbery on the inside. I mixed them in my Kitchen Aid instead of by hand, so maybe the gluten got over stimulated. The only other thing I can think of that might have messed them up is my oven temperature could have been off as I don't have an oven thermometer. (I know, I know, but my baked goods always come out fine!) So, I'm trying to figure out how to make these things edible. I'm thinking of shredding them, sautéing, and throwing in some sort of bean dish, pasta sauce, or fried rice. I was going to use them in the Curried Udon Noodles, but I think they would just ruin that dish.

_________________"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque

Hubby took the leftover baked tofu to work today for lunch...he was standing in the elevator with his plate and two ladies joked that they were going to tackle him and steal his lunch, and that it looked really good. He said, "Are you sure? It's tofu." And they were instantly completely and totally disinterested and thought it was gross. They told him they thought it was pork chops! I really wish more omnis would try tofu because it's seriously not scary! They went from threatening to tackle him to be grossed out...the food still looks and smells the same...so what the heck? LOL